Hundreds of homeless children in Peterborough as lockdown began

Housing charity Shelter says it is “unbearable” that tens of thousands of children across England had no permanent home when the pandemic took hold, after the national total hit a 14-year high.

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government figures show 365 children from 187 households were housed in temporary accommodation in Peterborough at the end of March – though this was a decrease of 14 per cent on the same point last year, when there were 422. There was an urgent push for local authorities to find accommmodation for homeless people to help track and protect them from the spreading virus as Covid hit the UK.

The MHCLG said the rise in figures may be linked in part to this Covid-19 ‘Everyone In’ scheme, which was introduced just after lockdown on March 23, and required councils to house rough sleepers in hotels or emergency shelters.

Across England, there were 129,380 children in temporary accommodation on March 31 – the highest number since 2006.

Temporary accommodation may include bed and breakfasts, hostels or other nightly housing.

Shelter describes B&Bs as “some of the worst places for families with children to live”, as they often involve entire households living in one small room without cooking facilities.

In Peterborough, households with children were most commonly in local authority or housing authority stock – 91 families in total.

Overall, 93,000 households were in temporary accommodation across England at the end of March, up by nine per cent on last year.

Shelter said the pandemic has compounded a pre-existing housing crisis caused by sky-high private rents, housing benefit cuts and a chronic shortage of affordable social homes.

Chief executive Polly Neate said: “It’s unbearable to think that tens of thousands of children were already homeless when the pandemic first took hold.

“What kind of futures will they have when they are spending formative time squashed into temporary homeless accommodation during a national lockdown?

“Life in temporary accommodation is hugely destabilising for children and can disrupt their development.”

She urged the Government to invest in social homes for local communities to save a generation from homelessness.

A spokesman for Peterborough City Council said their homelessness data is updated weekly and said: “At the end of March 2020 we had 330 households accommodated in temporary accommodation. There were 408 children in temporary accommodation. Of which 37 were accommodated in hostel accommodation. The rest are living in self contained housing with their families.

“As of last Friday, September 4, we had 279 households accommodated in temporary accommodation. There were 331 children in temporary accommodation. Of which only 16 were accommodated in hostel accommodation. The rest are living in self contained housing with their families.”

She added: “As a council we have worked extremely hard supporting households through the covid crisis and reducing the number of households with children in hostel accommodation. We had achieved this by moving families into self contained accommodation or them receiving a permanent offer. We have also delayed evictions for those who we no longer have a duty to accommodate.”

The Labour Party is calling for the Government to extend the evictions ban, currently due to end on September 20, to avoid thousands more people being put onto the streets before winter as residents who have found themselves unemployed due to the pandemic struggle to pay mounting rent or mortgage arrears.

Thangam Debbonaire, an MP and the party’s shadow housing secretary, said: “Before Covid, we already had devastatingly high numbers in temporary accommodation as a direct result of 10 years of Conservative government, whose policies have pushed people into poverty.

“The Government have known for months that an evictions crisis is looming.

“Not for the first time, it has been too slow to take action and despite the extension to the ban we’re still facing a potential disaster as there is still no plan for what comes next.”

An MHCLG spokeswoman said: “Every child should have somewhere safe to live, and councils have a duty to provide temporary accommodation to those who need it, including families with children.

“We are committed to supporting homeless families and we have put in place over half a billion pounds to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping over this financial year.”